


Paper Rings

by aestrales



Series: canon-compliant cc series [2]
Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Moving In Together, Pining, background rose granger weasley x ravenclaw girl (sophia)!, blink and you'll miss it yolly, just. unbearably fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:02:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23065924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aestrales/pseuds/aestrales
Summary: Starting in the summer before sixth year, Scorpius slowly falls in love with Albus.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Series: canon-compliant cc series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749031
Comments: 3
Kudos: 70
Collections: Scorbus Song Fics





	Paper Rings

**Author's Note:**

> huge huge thanks to sam for this idea, sorry it's taken me so long!! <3
> 
> (i was struggling with inspiration for this initially, and what i eventually came up with is inspired by the script and the way it moves through albus's first three years at hogwarts in little flashes!)

It was Albus’s laughter, coming from downstairs, that woke Scorpius. He’d been drifting in and out of consciousness for about half an hour, but he was finally awake now and he realised just how much he had overslept.  
In the kitchen, he was greeted by the sight of Lily hanging upside down across a counter. Summer sunlight glowed into the kitchen of the Burrow, illuminating the remaining crockery from last night’s dinner in the sink with the kind of charm everything in the house possessed.  
“Morning, Scorpius.” Teddy chimed. He was perched on the dining table, his feet up on a chair. Scorpius knew if Molly had been present she wouldn’t have approved, but most of the adults had either left already or were in the living room.  
“Morning.” Albus turned, eyes bright, to see him. “I always forget that you sleep like a sloth.”  
“Mornin’ Scorp.” Lily pulled herself upright and tumbled rather ungracefully onto the kitchen floor with a massive lopsided grin. She smiled just like Albus, except that usually he was a little more reserved than either of his siblings.  
Teddy offered Scorpius some tea from one of Molly’s oldest and most eccentric teapots, with tiny blue china hippogriffs adorning the edges. He gladly accepted and sat down, cupping the mug in his hands.  
Albus came and sat next to him, which was normal, completely, perfectly normal, because he always did that. Except that when he turned and looked at Albus and locked eyes with him, he felt something click into place in his chest. And suddenly he wasn’t looking at Albus, but at Albus, and he didn’t really know what the difference was but he had to look away now before Albus realised he was staring. It might only have been a second, but it felt like about five years worth of eye contact. Scorpius silently thanked Buckbeak that he didn’t blush very easily.

And then they were waiting for James and Lily to exit the Gryffindor common room, and Albus was looking up at the walls covered in paintings, watching a staircase move above them, absent-minded. And Scorpius seized the opportunity to watch him.  
He couldn’t avoid Albus at Hogwarts, of course, meaning that he couldn’t get away from that sensation of his heart in his throat, or that fact that every time Albus looked at him, especially when he smiled, he felt like he was about to combust.  
Mercifully, James and Lily emerged. And at last Scorpius had a distraction from the piece of Albus’ hair that had fallen in his face and the uncontrollable urge to brush it away himself.  
They walked down to Hogsmeade together, and the snow was thick but settled around them. In the Three Broomsticks, he managed an hour or so of normal conversation with Lily, James, Rose and the handful of others who passed through, until Albus decided to rest his head on Scorpius’ shoulder and he felt his entire body tense up.

And then Rose was catching him on the way out of Charms, pulling him out of the way of Albus and looking at him like she was trying not to laugh.  
“Well of course I know, Scorpius. Anyone who’s not a total idiot could see, and you’re lucky Albus is a total idiot.”  
And Sophia grinned at him as well, her arm around Rose’s waist, and they both lectured him on how badly he needed to tell Albus.  
And a few days later Sophia pulled Albus aside and interrogated him.  
And then nothing for a few weeks.  
And then James and Sophia conspiring in a corner.  
And Lily dropping not particularly subtle hints.

And then the Christmas holidays, and a weird tension settled between him and Albus. Whenever they were alone something unspoken, unacknowledged, hovered in the air. But when they were in a crowd it was them against the world, when all the Weasley cousins descended with their not-so-subtle hints they both rolled their eyes together. And then James took it too far, with the hinting, and Albus put his mug down with a click in the silence and said,  
“James had a crush on Teddy for four years.”  
And there was total uproar, and Scorpius was forgotten in the chaos, and James almost broke Albus’ nose before Ginny stepped in.

And Christmas day, back at home with his dad, and there was a sadness in the air neither of them could acknowledge. They spent most of the day in silence together. Scorpius read the book his dad had given him, a gilded copy of A History of Magic with a new introduction and revisions including new chapters on the last fifty years of developments in modern witchcraft. The fire crackled and occasionally it spat, and they spent most of the day in the same place, two armchairs by the fire. It was almost nostalgic for him. Scorpius had spent his childhood surrounded by books, and his dad had gone away and brought back new volumes from the Manor and the collection in their own home had grown. Sometimes, just like this, his dad had sat with him, doing nothing, as though he just wanted to be near him. Taking a deep breath and closing his book, Scorpius summoned as much courage as he had, keeping his gaze straight ahead.  
“Dad?” In his peripheral vision, he could see his head turn.  
“Yes?”  
“I think I… Well, I like boys.” His voice suddenly went very small. He wondered briefly if he had actually heard him. He saw the figure in his periphery nod slightly. “And girls as well. Uh, both.”  
“Alright.” He shifted slightly, and Scorpius could have sworn he was hiding a smile behind his hand.

And he was back on the train, and Albus was asleep, and Rose was leaning on the door and her expression was full of insinuation.  
And Albus looked so sweet, with his head against the side of the train and his hair sticking up at the back and his eyes closed, his mouth ever so slightly open and his breathing just audible, and he could fall asleep absolutely anywhere and it never ceased to amaze Scorpius.  
And he ignored all of that just to spite Rose, who rolled her eyes.  
“What, you think I don’t know what a Scorpius crush looks like? I can’t believe you’re still bothering to deny it. Both of you.”

And they were eating toast on a bench in the cloisters, and nobody was around because really it was still too cold to eat outside, but they had scarves on and they were leaning very close together and Scorpius could feel Albus pressing into his shoulder. And Albus was saying something, but it was slightly muffled in his scarf, and he was leaning into Scorpius’s shoulder and Scorpius buried his head into Albus’s hair.

And Albus was grinning at him across the gap between their beds in the middle of the night, smiling like he never smiled at anyone else, at least not that Scorpius had ever seen.

And they had gone for a walk in the grounds, and everything was slowly getting warmer and brighter as spring approached. And he had to ask, because Rose had said that Lily had said that James had it on good authority that Albus felt the same way, and he didn’t know how to ask it, and he was tripping over his words in the worst way possible. And then Albus said it for him, completed his sentence, and they locked eyes again and Albus was reaching for his hand, and Scorpius grabbed it and held on for a moment, and then he let go.

And then they were alone in the common room, and the fire was lit, and they were sat on the floor, and Albus touched his hand and they did it all again, the hands, the eye contact, and then some, because then they were kissing, and it was impossible to describe but it felt absolutely meant to be.

And then they were on the train home for the very last time, watching the castle shrink in the distance, and they were holding hands, and Polly was crying into Yann’s shoulder, and Karl was leaning on Rose, who was leaning on Sophia, and they were all crammed into the last carriage of the train, reluctant to say goodbye, trying to keep close to Hogwarts for as long as possible.

Then Scorpius was wrapping his arms around Albus’s waist, and leaning his head on his chest, and Albus was pressing him tightly against his own heart.

Then they were alone in their own apartment, together, uncertain but excited, and Scorpius had taken over because Albus had absolutely no taste for interior decorating.

And Scorpius woke up. And Albus was asleep next to him, his hair falling absolutely everywhere, and he watched him breathe for a few moments. He reached out and pushed most of Albus’s hair out of his face, and he stirred, and reached for Scorpius’s hand. His eyes fluttered open for half a moment and he kissed Scorpius’s fingertips, and Scorpius shifted so he was face to face with him, with an arm over his waist. And Albus, half asleep, smiled.  
And finally, after all that, Scorpius spoke. With a confidence he definitely hadn’t felt before now.  
“Marry me?”  
“Huh?” Albus grunted, his eyes opening slightly once more.  
“Marry me.”  
“That’s what I thought you said.” Albus kissed him. “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> @_fortylinestare on twitter <3


End file.
